The missing link of Villa’s new away kit?
The Aston Villa away kit for the 2014/15 season sees the club return to a more sober and traditional white shirt for their travels after experiments with luminosity and quadrants. The last white shirts with pinstripes were designed by Nike for the 2007/2008 season and also as a one-off for the CSKA Moscow game in Europe the following season.
The official press release of the Villa away kit by Macron trumpets an association with the away shirt worn on the evening of the 26th May 1982 in Rotterdam.
The release states: ‘The shirt, which features a white body with a pinstripe design to pay homage to the famous jersey worn by legends such as Gordon Cowans, Peter Withe and Ken McNaught in Rotterdam.’
We may be splitting hairs here, but to be historically correct, judging by the picture below (assuming the Cowans shirt isn’t photoshopped!), it is actually almost a carbon copy of the shirt used in the following season.
For league games the Villa kit of the 1982/83 season had the badge in the middle of the shirt, but for European games there was a special edition of the kit with the badge to the left-hand side of the chest as in the below pic of Villa taking on Juventus shows. The same shirt was also used in the European Super Cup against Barcelona.
What I don’t quite get is the Mita copier sponsor sign in the middle of the shirt, as that season Villa were sponsored by Davenports and also, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think sponsors were allowed on shirts in European competition at that time. If it isn’t a photoshop mock-up and you know in which game Cowans wore the shirt do let MOMS know in the comments below.
While the historical kits list acknowledges the special edition European home shirt with its different badge position, it doesn’t mention the away one for European matches that season. Considering in the second round of Villa’s defence of the European Cup, Dinamo Bucharest would have played in red at home, Villa must have worn their white away kit (still trying to find a picture though!). The first listed Mita sponsored away kit is the 1983/84 away shirt with horizontal claret/yellow pinstripes.
Again, it’s a minor detail, but with the badge position it looks like Villa’s new away kit actually takes it lead from a mysterious forgotten post-Rotterdam Villa away kit that was hardly ever used. Still, ‘inspired by Rotterdam ’82’ has a better ring to it for marketing purposes! UTV
Dynamo Bucharest v Aston Villa 21 Oct 1981. Villa in white : http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=dinamo+bucharest+v+aston+villa&qpvt=dinamo+bucharest+v+aston+villa&FORM=VDRE#view=detail&mid=C82AAF7B45DE52C30B74C82AAF7B45DE52C30B74
Sorry – this is Dynamo Berlin 🙁 No sponsor on shirt, though (although this is the previous year).
Yep, I did a search for the Dynamo Bucharest game on YouTube, but tricky to find much from Villa’s adventures in Europe during the 192/83 season apart from the Juve game.
I could be very wrong here so relegate post of so,
I’ve heard Le Coq Sportif have the rights to the 82 euro shirt nailed down harder than a barn door in a hillbilly hurricane!
That might explain it?